My inner collar is the exact dimensions of the freezer opening and the outer collar hangs down around 3 sides. Advantages for me are it helps secure the collar to the freezer and give me a place to screw in a drip tray if I want.

Also, it allows you to choose a nicer piece of wood as a facing, instead of using really expensive wood for the inside, where no one sees it anyways.

This isn't mine but it demonstrates what the outer collar does on my kegerator

Just make sure your collar is big enough so you have the clearance if you want to put kegs on the compressor hump. Otherwise you'll have to build one all over again (ask me how I know )

But, I do understand what you're saying. But I know how hard the staff at the AHA works. And I'm starting to get that same knowledge with the BA folks. In fact I think they share some staff members.

And I appreciate their work, even if it's not perfect.

I don't believe that anyone who has been around the AHA for a while (i.e. not just the people who signed up to get in on the presale) thinks for a moment that these people do not work their asses off for this great hobby.

That said, with the issues with NHC registration, 1st round competition entries, and now GABF (2 years in a row from what I'm hearing), there definitely needs to be some action taken to address these situations. It is only going to get worse as more and more people get into homebrewing (rumor has it there will be 4000 people at NHC next year ) and craft beer. Whether or not these events are the fault of the BA/AHA, it reflects badly on the brand and makes it more difficult to sell. GABF was not a concern for me since I never plan on going, but if something similar happened for NHC, I would be rather upset.

I realize the growth of the AHA is astronomical, and I'm sure everything is being done that can be. Maybe once this recent debacle settles down, Gary can issue a statement to the membership detailing what steps are being taken to prevent or at least, minimize these issues.

For now, I am glad to continue my AHA membership and plan to renew when it is up, mostly due to the items listed above.

Really? Why do they care? What if you couldn't attend a game, you are just supposed to eat the tickets?

They actually allow me to post on their site and season ticket waiting list members can purchase them. They do also allow for private sales, but if that person gets drunk and starts a fight, I could lose my tickets. Through the team site I'm off the hook.

I think their problem with stubhub is the markup people get and they don't get a piece.

Stubhub has the Saturday afternoon session listed ranging from $195 to $800. Is it really worth it? Doesn't the AHA/BA have control over tickets for their events? I know if I post my football season tickets on one of these sites, the team can pull my tickets and ban me from having season tickets again.

I have no idea how they will fix this...and it's just going to get worse. Definitely a problem I wouldn't want to have.

Given that AHA membership numbers are sequential, you only need to know 1 valid number, then keep adding 1 and go again. So it would not be surprising if scalpers took that approach. Even if that didnt work, 1 years membership spread over 14 tickets is no brainer.

The only way a members pre-sale works, is if the ticket is tied to the membership number and the card needs to be presented at the door. But how you make that work for 5,000+ tickets per session I have no idea.

Maybe the membership number and another piece of information (zip code, etc) to verify. But with the issues they are having just getting the membership numbers to ready correctly, I don't know if that's feasible.

I'd be interested to see what kind of membership bump they got from announcing the presale for AHA members. Maybe those dues could go to infrastructure improvements.

Man, the AHA/BA is definitely having a tough year. With NHC and 1st round issues, now it looks like there's issue with GABF tickets and a bunch of brewers pissed off they got shut out from attending...and some big names too.

I went to school in VT and was grandfathered into the new age limit (I turned 18 just before the passed the law to raise the age to 21). We drank whatever the cheapest thing was. That meant hitting up frat parties that had kegs, Stroh's 30 packs, something we called Hiney Wine which was a Bartels and James wine cooler that sold at the local department store, and $.10 Genesee drafts on Tuesday nights.

Honestly, we didn't care what was left or how much we drank...just that we were still alive in the morning.

Don't even bother with the secondary. Cold crash it in the primary if you want, then transfer to you bottling bucket. As Blatz said, just try not to disturb the trub too much. I'll usually move the carboy/bucket to my table a few hours before I keg/bottle, to allow for that last bit of settling after moving.

Never had a problem shipping with UPS. I setup an account, print the lable at home, and drop in the UPS area at work. Sometimes it's pretty obvious what's in the package, especially when the address has a c/o "XXXXX Homebrew Competition".